Tag: Cheese

Hello Friends! It’s been a minute. I have been up to so much lately and as you can tell form the blog title I have a surprise for you! Been working on compiling the blog’s best vegetarian offerings which you can now get as an e-book. I have always wanted to write a cookbook and I have said it multiple times. Putting together this e-book helped alight my goals and gave me a taste of what it feels to put a valuable product out there in world. I am now so excited to be sharing this token of love with you!

With most of A Kitchen in Uganda’s food stories vegetarian celebrations, there are so many exciting, memorable and valuable dishes that have been created on the blog for the past 5+ years. This book is a compilation of some of the best of those dishes. The purpose for this book is that you can always have these creations whether you have access to the blog or not.

Who is this book for?

Whether it is planning a big gathering, needing an instant dish to satiate your cravings or looking for an idea for your next potluck or food business idea, this book is for you.

This book is for the vegetarian and/or foodie who would love to explore the endless possibilities that come with using less mainstream local produce and ingredients.

This book is for the creative ‘thinking-out-of-the-box’ individual who wants to make their food journey a little more exciting and fulfilling at the same time with ingredients that are easily accessible.

This book for the Ugandan and anyone on the continent of Africa that has to battle with the government imposed social media taxes. My blog has thrived because of the unlimited access to the internet that I have enjoyed and I realize this is not the same story for everyone which is why I took the time to compile these recipes so that you can have them at the tip of your fingertips with or without the internet!

What is inside this 77 page book:

34 Delicious and Wholesome Dishes and Recipes from A Kitchen in Uganda

Starting this blog, I was young and naive. All I knew is that I wanted to cook exciting, interesting and delicious food. Years later, I now understand the value of food, using local produce, using fresh produce and being creative. This salad was conceived after binge watching the amazing Fat Salt Acid Heat docu-series. I was blown away by the beauty of how the most basic of ingredients yield some of the best flavors. When you think of beans and dodo and potatoes individually, a salad rarely comes to your mind. But when the same ingredients are transformed through different techniques, what you get is a beautiful vibrant salad that is so satisfying and complex in flavors. This is one of the main reasons I keep slaving away in the kitchen like a mad woman because the ecstasy of discovering something else a common produce can be is unmatched! I had a hard time naming this salad because it has dodo, masala potatoes, sweet and charred carrots, beans, green onions for a spicy kick, pumpkin seeds for a crunch and a sprinkle of cheese to marry all the flavors together. This would have made a really long title. Ha!

What you will need:

1 C. Beans, boiled and drained

1C. Potatoes, cut into wedges

1 C. Carrots, julienned

A handful of dodo(amaranth greens), steamed

1/4 C. Green onions, chopped

1/4 C. Nuts

1/4 C. Cheese, grated (optional)

Juice from half an orange

1 Tsp. Soy sauce

1 Tsp. Ground cumin

1 Tsp. curry powder

1/2 Tsp. chili flakes

Black pepper

Salt

Observations:

Using cheese is optional.

Use salt carefully keeping in mind that all the individual salted components will be combined. With that said, I salted only the potatoes. Then sprinkled salt on the finished salad.

You can use any type of beans. I used red beans.

You can use any nuts available to you.

I recommend a non-stick pan to avoid burning

Method:

Place a pan on fire, Wait for it to get hot. Add about a teaspoon of oil.

Add the potato wedges. Shallow fry the wedges till half way cooked. Make sure you keep stirring to avoid burning.

Let the carrots shallow fry till the orange juice has reduced to a thick sauce and the carrots start to slightly char.

Remove the carrots from the pan and set aside.

Using the same pan still, add half a teaspoon of oil and saute the green onions.

Add the soy sauce, and chili flakes to the frying onions.

Fry the onions till they turn a bright green but still have a crunch.

Remove the onions from fire

To assemble the salad

Layer the salad by starting with the boiled beans. Next add the potatoes. Next add the steamed dodo. Add the caramelized carrots on top. Next add the onions. Sprinkle your nuts/seeds on top. Finish off with grated cheese.

Move over Irish and sweet potato chips. You have a new rival! YAM. The purple kind. The kind which melts in your mouth. The kind when cooked and served alongside groundnut stew or beef stew is one of the perfect meals you will ever have. Yes that Yam. While doing my research, I found out yam has a lot of names in different places. This kind of yam is popular in central Uganda although there are many other varieties and species in the country.

I don’t always eat out because this homebody life but when I do, I always want to recreate meals I eat in restaurants at home. Now this epic snack meal has two major ingredients: Yams and Cheese because you can never go wrong with cheese and because yam is just a wonderful alternative to Irish and sweet potatoes. The sharp cheddar adds a savoury taste to the crunchy yam chips creating multiple layers of textures.

One of the things that make these chips so good is that they have a unique earthy (-ish) taste that is quite hard to describe. If you have eaten these yams you know what I mean. Now that these yam chips are just the perfect snack, I went bigger and melted Cheddar cheese from Paramount Dairies on them sprinkled some herbs and garnished with fresh from the garden sweet cherry tomatoes. This is the perfect snack! In fact it is the ultimate snack I tell you. Best advice is buy as much yam as you can, peel it and cut it into chips, freeze and whenever you feel like chips, get those yams out and get busy. You should absolutely make these chips

What you will need:

1 Kilo Yams

200 gm Cheddar cheese

Tomato ketchup (optional)

Cherry tomatoes

Salt

Parsley for garnish

Observations:

When you buy the yams, make sure they do not touch water. This is because they release a substance that when it comes in contact with your skin will cause itchiness.

When peeling the yams, I recommend wearing gloves if you have them but a plastic will work well too. This is to avoid any form of itchiness. Again strictly stay away from any form of water.

Method

Peel the yams and set aside for about 10 minutes.

When your hands are still covered wash the yams and pat dry with a towel.

Cut the yams into chips

Fry the chips till slightly golden brown

Sprinkle salt on the fried chips

Melt cheddar

Slice the tomatoes

To assemble

Arrange chips on plate/tray.

Pour melted cheddar

Add the tomatoes

Sprinkle with parsley

Serve warm.

What are you waiting for? Make sure to use #AkitchenInUg to share your creations.

🙂

Sophie

This post is made possible by Paramount Dairies. You can find Cheddar cheese and more cheese products in major supermarkets in Kampala. Thank you for supporting brands I believe in.